HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Nottingham routs Hopewell

PENNINGTON — Three weeks is a long time to stew about the season’s first loss, but that’s exactly what Nottingham High’s football team had to do.

Once the stewing was over, the Northstars took it out on Hopewell Valley yesterday with a 35-6 victory that could provide a second seed in the state playoffs should a myriad of things happen.

Since losing to Allentown in the “Game of the Year” Oct. 20, Nottingham had a bye, then had an unwanted bye due to Super Storm Sandy.

But the Stars looked as if they had never been away in rolling to a 28-0 first-half lead on HoVal’s impressive new turf field.

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“I had a pretty good feel about this, due to the fact that we had very good practices all week,” Nottingham coach Jon “Big Dawg” Adams said. “Even though we were inside on the two snow days we had good practices.

“I thought the kids were pretty sharp and it helped they got together during the storm on their own and did some things. They threw the ball, which obviously helped us.

I think we had a pretty balanced offense today.”

Led by Alexis Santiago’s season-high 107 yards on 13 carries, the Northstars rushed for 201 to go along with 240 passing yards.

Luke Westerberg was 5-for-8 for 129 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 57 yards on just two carries. Stephen Adams was 8-for-13 for 111 yards and a TD. Santiago’s brother, Jameel Bailey, exploded for six catches for 97 yards and two touchdowns and Jamar Butler had three grabs for 104 yards and a TD.

“Coach changed it up and gave us some different drills and let us hit a lot and lower our shoulders, and I guess they couldn’t stop us,” Santiago said. “Our line is really good now, we have a steady fullback (Nick DeMarie), he’s doing his job.”

The only time Nottingham wasn’t in control came at the outset of the second half when Hopewell recovered an onsides kick. The Bulldogs didn’t score but Chaz Bell’s second interception got the ball back and led to Mark Wenner’s TD run.

That made Hopewell just the second team to score against Nottingham’s first-string defense, which allowed just 38 rushing yards.

Nottingham got the score back when Santiago tallied on a 17-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

“I think we came out a little flat after halftime,” Westerberg said. “We thought we were ahead by enough. After they scored the first time we came back and put it to them.”

That was after putting it to them the entire first half, as Nottingham scored on four of its first five possessions.

Butler caught a 36-yard TD pass from Adams, Bailey followed with two straight scoring grabs from Westerberg, and Wroway Williams rushed for the final TD of the half.

“Defensively in the second half I thought we played pretty tough,” Hopewell coach Dave Caldwell said. “But you have to play two complete halves. That’s a good football team, you can’t decide to play one half.”